A Bad Case
by charlieerin
Summary: Jake is in over his head on a Christmas eve case and needs the help of his whole family to save him and the innocents at risk in town.
1. Chapter 1

On a cold, windy day in December, a severe snow storm blows into town, forcing not only the citizens of the town to remain indoors, but also all of the emergency response workers as well. Everyone would be without the help of police, paramedics and fireman until the storm died down or moved on.

Private Detective Jake Doyle, working a case with his father Malachy, was not deterred by the adverse conditions and agreed to meet their client outside a cafe a few minutes from their downtown office. Sarah Wilmington, recently widowed, had hired Jake and Malachy to investigate the suspicious death of her husband of 10 years, James. James had been working for a local business man,Al Cavanaugh, known to have ties with local criminals, and had been investigated numerous times in cases of suspicious deaths and business deals.

With only a few days until Christmas, Malachy was hoping to set aside the case until after the holidays were over and the rest of his family had returned to their homes. As it stands, Christian, his eldest son, Kathleen, his daughter, Tinny, his granddaughter, Des, adopted son, and his wife Rose were staying at the house. As well as Jake and Leslie, his girlfriend.

Everyone was sitting in the living room, watching a Christmas movie, except for Jake. Just as Malachy was about to call him to ask where he was he received an incoming call from Jake's cell.

"Jake where are you?" he asks his son, annoyed

"Sarah wanted to meet, she said that while she was going through her husbands things she found some information that might help us connect his death to Cavanaugh. She asked me to meet her in front of the diner down the street from the office." Jake replies, locking the door of the office behind him as he steps out into the frigid air and swirling snow, already up to his ankles.

"Really? Well, Leslie is here, and so is everyone else. They've already put a movie on, when do you think that you'll be home ?"

"I'm not sure father, it probably won't be very long. Oh, do you have Nikki's address handy ? I have a letter I want to send her but I didn't have her address written down at the office."

"It's probably written down somewhere, you can find it when you get here."

"Alright, wouldn't want you to work too hard father. This storm's gettin real bad, I can barely see a few feet in front of me."

"Be careful Jake, not only in this storm but Cavanaugh isn't someone to mess with lightly."

"I'll be careful father, and I should be at the house in about 15 or 20 minutes, tell Leslie I'm sorry I'm late." and he hangs up the phone, walking the last few steps to stand in front of the diner.

After a couple of minutes the shape of a woman becomes visible, and he sees Sarah walking toward him, and he meets her half way.

"Sarah, lovely place to meet." he begins conversationally and Sarah briefly gives him a small smile before going serious and pulling out a white envelope from her purse.

"What's this then ?" asks Jake, taking the envelope

"It's proof that Cavanaugh was watching my husband, and proof that he sent his goons after him when James wasn't willing to play dirty." says Sarah, looking around nervously.

"And you think that Cavanaugh is going to come after you too?" asks Jake noticing her nervous looks around, and secretly thinking that she probably wasn't wrong.

"I've seen the same truck parked outside of my house for the last week, and the same men sitting inside it. I might just be paranoid, but it feels like I'm being watched and..." She trails off, looking at a spot over his shoulder. Jake whips his head around and sees a large blue truck parked a little ways down the street.

"Is that the truck you've been seeing ?" he asks quietly, but still loud enough to be heard over the screeching wind.

She nods "yes, can you tell if anyone's in it ?" she asks

Jake's just shaking his head no when he sees the passenger door and back door, on the driver's side, open and two large men get out and start towards the pair. Jake turns back to the terrified Sarah and says:

"Run Sarah, run!" and run she does, back through the alley and disappears down the next street.


	2. Chapter 2

Jake turns back to the two men coming towards him and as they come into reach he punches the first man in the nose, breaking it, and as the man is doubling over, hands to his nose, Jake punches him in the temple, knocking the man to the ground. Before he can fully turn towards the other man, he feels three quick punches to his stomach causing him to double over slightly, breath knocked from his lungs, another two to the face, giving him a split lip and bruised cheek . Just as the man is snaking his hand back for another punch, Jake brings his left leg forward and kicks the man's knee backwards, hearing a sickening tearing sound and then the man's scream of pain. Jake is about to run when he feels white hot pain on the side of his face and turns, albeit rather drunkenly, and sees the first man standing with a gun in his hand, having just pistol whipped Jake. Before he can do anything though, the second man has gripped Jake by his hair and smashes his head into the cafe's brick wall, scraping his head along the bricks for a second before dropping to the ground. Jake kicks out at the man's knee again and , after pushing himself up using the wall for support, tries to make it across the street and away from the men. He feels something burning hot rip through his left shoulder and stumbles, pain causing him to miss the sound of the truck starting. Jake shakily pulls his phone out of his pocket and dials his father's number

"Jake, where are you ? It's been longer than twenty minute." says Malachy by way of greeting.

"Da, get the gun." Jake says, words coming out strained as he grits his teeth against the pain.

"What ? Jake what's happening?" questions the elder Doyle, "Jake?" he questions, after only hearing heavy panting and the raging wind on the other side for a few seconds.

"put me on speaker Da" instructs Jake, knowing he'll only be able to explain once.

Malachy motions for Tinny to turn off the tv when he walks into the living room, and puts him on speaker phone, everyone gathering around him, listening quietly.

"alright Jake, you're on speaker, everyone's here." says Malachy into the phone

"I was talking to Sarah..." pants Jake, leaning against a wall for a second before continuing to jog down the snow covered street.

"and she noticed this truck park a little ways away... these men got out...i told her to run and she did.. then I got into a ...fight with them... shot me.. now I'm running.. just get the gun out... Leslie?"

"I'm here Jake..." she answers him, everyone looking worried.

"get your gun out too...crap!" he says loudly into the phone

"what is it Jake, what's happening ?" asks Rose, putting a hand on Malachy's back in comfort.

"They're following me..." Jake grits out, and they can hear him breathing heavily as he runs.

"Just..get.. the gun...Da.. I got...ahh shit!" yells Jake before the sound of metal hitting flesh can be heard through the phone. They can hear the sound of a body hitting the ground heavily and Jake's yell of pain.

"Shit...shit...shit...shit.." they can hear him moan, sounding far away. They hear the sound of car doors opening and closing and the quiet whisper of footsteps muffled by snow, before they hear Jake yell again and the sound of someone dragging something heavy. The last thing they hear is the sound of car doors once again being opened and closed and then nothing but the howling wind. The family looked at each other painfully worried.


	3. Chapter 3

Jake wakes up in the back of the truck, hands tied in front of him, back and ribs protesting the movements of the truck beneath him, and he blearily looks at the houses going by outside the truck's cap's windows one eyed, his left eye swollen almost completely closed. He can see that they are only a few streets away from his father's home and hopes that that isn't where They're going, but knowing, deep down, that it is. He looks away from the window and sees that his shoulder is still bleeding rather heavily and his shirt and jacket are completely saturated in his blood, and is dripping steadily onto the floor beneath him. A few more painful minutes of driving and the truck stops, Jake can see that they are in fact stopped outside of his father's home and hopes that they listened to his advice and got their guns out.

An unknown man comes around the truck and, after opening the back up, drags Jake painfully out of the truck bed and back out into the winter storm, forcing him to walk in front of the man and the man with the broken nose, the other man nowhere in sight, hands still tied in front of him. Jake walks hunched over his aching ribs, trying to ignore the burning in his shoulder and the painful twinges in his back as he hobbles towards the front door, gun pressed into his back painfully. When they get to the front door the new man stops him and rings the doorbell, the quiet murmurs from inside the house stopping, and a shadow flicking across the door before Malachy opens the door, eyes widening at the sight before him.

Jake stands, hands tied before him, with two men at his back. The left side of Jake's face is covered in blood, eye swollen shut and lip busted open. Mal can see blood staining the left side of his son's jacket and shirt beneath. His hands and knuckles are scraped and bleeding and Mal can see rips in Jake's jacket at the elbows. From the way that Jake is slightly hunched forward he can see that his ribs have also been hurt. Malachy finally looks back at his son's face, taking in all the other injuries in seconds, and sees a look of extreme pain before he shifts his gaze to the other two men, one looking around nervously and the other glaring at him determinately before motioning them inside with the gun previously against Jake's back.

Malachy opens the door all the way and steps back, backing into the living room, Jake following along as fast as his injuries will allow. The man without the gun closes the door behind them. Inside the living room Jake can see Christian, Rose and his father: Leslie, Tinny, Des, and Kathleen nowhere in sight. Something for which, Jake is mostly grateful for. As Jake steps into the room, the man with the gun behind him, the gun pointed towards the others in the room, Leslie steps out from behind one of the chairs, close to the wall where she was hidden, and points her gun at the man's head.

"Put the gun down, now!" she orders, voice strong, though her eyes flicker with worry towards Jake.

"I don't think so, if you don't put your gun down, your friend here will have another hole in his body." replies the man, pointing the gun once more towards Jake, who is trying to inch his way away from the two men.

Malachy slowly pulls his own gun out and, when the man with the gun is looking away, draws it out and points it at the two men who had had his son.

"I don't think you're really in a position to be telling us what to do" says Malachy, stepping closer to them and his son.

The man closest to the door, who is unarmed, raises his hands in defeat, his face a mask of nervousness. Malachy waves him forward with his free hand, and the man walks towards them, Christian taking a firm grip of his arms, as Leslie takes a step closer to the armed man. Jake has made it halfway across the living room, the armed man having dropped his gun after being outnumbered, when the third man breaks through the back door and opens fire on the room.

Christian releases the nervous man, and grabs Rose, pulling her down onto the floor. Leslie moves back against the wall and the man who had the gun runs towards the front door. Jake tries to get out of the way but his injuries impede his ability to move quickly and another bullet catches him in his side as he crashes to the floor, a loud moan of pain escaping from between his clenched teeth.

Malachy shifts his gun towards where the man is standing and opens fire, hitting the man quickly and killing him. The third man, the one who originally had a gun, uses the diversion as an opportunity to run out the front door and he speeds off in the truck, leaving the Doyle family with a dead body, a prisoner and a seriously injured Jake. As soon as the noise dies down Christian, Rose, Malachy and Leslie rush to Jake's side and they are not happy with what they see.


End file.
